


Christmas in Anvil Point

by DarkAcey



Series: Go Off the Deep End and companion works [7]
Category: Original Work, The Little Mermaid - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Bisexual Male Character, Christmas, Christmas Party, Established Relationship, Families of Choice, Family, Flirting, Fluff, Gay Male Character, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Mpreg, Original Fiction, Plot, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17158166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey
Summary: "The season of Christmas arrived in Anvil Point as a blanket of snow and evergreens."In a possible future after the events that happen in "Go Off the Deep End," Erick and Silas return to Anvil Point to spend Christmas with all of their friends and family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Go Off the Deep End](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11100243) by [DarkAcey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAcey/pseuds/DarkAcey). 



> I couldn't get the thought out of my head of what Erick and Silas' first Christmas together would be like, so I went ahead and began writing it! I have another chapter to post tomorrow, as well as another chapter of the alternate story ("Other Side of the Water"). I don't know if I'll finish all of this before New Years', but that's my current plan. 
> 
> Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!

Snow drifted down from an overcast morning sky as a car and a truck with fitted a snowplow and a covered back pulled up to a cliff overlooking a rocky tide pool. The owner of the truck, Dunley was a heavyset man with a bushy ginger beard. He stepped out first and rubbed his gloved hands together, breathing in warm air between his cold fingers. To the owner of the car, Dunley called, “We couldn’t have picked a worse day to bring everyone to land, huh?”

“It’s not that bad,” Ivan answered blithely, walking over to him and folding up the collar of his long wool coat over the ear flaps of his grey fur ushanka hat. The older man also had on galoshes, while Dunley had on full fishing waders under an oilskin coat. “I’ve seen winters that were _much_ worse than this.”

“It’s still damn cold to be swimming.” Dunley went around to the back of his truck to open it up. The cover over the back was made of an oiled tarp tied around an improvised metal frame. The normally empty truck bed had three baskets of towels, blankets, and enough clothes for nine people set between two roughly made wooden benches. Two milk crates inside also had logs and fire-starting supplies.

Dunley and Ivan had come to the tide pool to pick up Ivan’s nephew, Erick; Erick’s partner, Silas; Silas’ father, Ronan; and six of Silas’ closest friends, Gale, Merise, Jeb, Monty, Doris, and Iara. All of them were mers, though Erick had become a merman only a little over six months ago. The change had ended up being quite an ordeal for all of them, considering how their separate worlds collided and caused problems on both sides of the shore, but their lives had finally settled down in time to celebrate Christmas.

Pulling over one of the milk crates of logs, Dunley took out a hand shovel and set to work digging a fire pit near his truck. “It’s going to be hell trying to get everyone dry and dressed in this weather,” he said as he cleared away enough snow to lay down the logs they brought. “Do all of them even know how to walk yet?”

“No, except for Gale, I don’t believe any of Silas’ friends have had much time to learn.” Ivan put his hands in his pockets while he watched Dunley work. “Silas’ father was only able to practice during his visits with our leaders.”

Earlier that year, shortly after they were all able to get magical tattoos that allowed them to walk on land, Gale had spent much of autumn at Ivan’s estate with Erick and Silas. Gale’s mother, Merise, wasn’t able to take much time away from her job as a healer, and Silas’ salvaging friends, Jeb, Monty, Doris, and Iara had only each been able to visit briefly. Jeb had his shop in the market chasm to mind, and the others were busy helping Silas run his burgeoning business fetching lost things or loved ones from sunken ships for humans. While Silas focused on fostering good relations between merfolk and humans through economic and personal connections, his father, Ronan helped work through the political issues between them. Erick also served as an unofficial ambassador of humankind among merfolk, being formerly human, but he didn’t work much at all now because he was a little over six months pregnant.

“Bollocks,” Dunley muttered. “We’re going to need to get Silas and Gale dressed first then so they can help us with everyone else.” Though the snow was still coming down thick, Dunley finished clearing a circle and laid down the logs. He crumpled up newspaper in the middle and dropped in a lit match. After a few more minutes of struggling to get the fire going strong enough, Dunley stood up again and took out the basket of towels. “Let’s hope we won’t have to wait on them long.”

“They said they were going to take dolphins, so they might actually be waiting on us.” Ivan kept his hand on the cliff wall as he followed Dunley down a steep, narrow path down to the tide pool. They stopped at the bottom, just above the waves that rushed in and out. Ivan picked up a fist-sized stone from the path. Stepping forward to give himself a better pitching stance, he tossed it into the ocean. The rock splashed and disappeared.

* * *

Beneath the surface, past the tide pool to the bottom of the water where the kelp forest began, a group of merfolk were huddled around a sphere-shaped cage suspended from a long rod jabbed into the sand. Inside the cage floated a glowing red rock that had been enchanted to heat the water around them. Each of them also wore varying kinds of sealskin coverings, ranging from full shirts with holes for their gills to only arm warmers.

Erick and Silas were sitting next to each other with their backs to the cliff wall, and Silas had nestled his head in the crook between Erick’s chest and muscled arm. The fair skin of Silas’ cheek looked stark against what little of Erick’s olive skin was exposed on his upper body. Erick had on full-length sealskin sleeves and a bare shoulder crop top, both of which were skin tight to better help retain body heat. Erick was rubbing Silas’ crimson and gold scaled hip, playing with the hem of his sealskin shirt, while he kept his other hand beneath the swell of his stomach. Behind his taut skin, he felt their baby’s tailfin flick against his palm, surprising him.

Silas noticed Erick stiffen and lifted his head to face him. “What is it?”

“The bug moved.” Erick removed his hand from Silas to sit back and stare at his stomach. It still wasn’t a sight he enjoyed because of the loss of his abs, but he had grown used to it. He was not, however, used to the feeling of his little stomach bug’s movements graduating from small flutters to proper kicking.

“He did?” Silas jumped up to face Erick’s waist. Eyes wide in excitement, he asked, “Do you think it was big enough for me to feel it?”

“Uh, maybe?” Erick shrunk self-consciously under the sudden attention of everyone else. Ronan and Merise in particular had been fussing over him frequently, always reminding him to be less picky with his food, eat more, and get extra sleep. All three were difficult rules to follow since he still didn’t care much for merfolk’s raw seafood, still felt self-conscious about his growing girth, and struggled to sleep no matter what he did because of his constant anxiety and the unsetting feeling of his little stomach bug wiggling around inside of him. It had been moving more and more over the past month, but it hadn’t gotten quite strong enough for anyone besides Erick to feel it yet. Erick rubbed where he felt him kick last and grimaced when he hit his hand again. “He’s pretty lively right now.”

Silas grinned. “He must be excited to go back to land.” He held his hand over Erick’s, wordlessly asking permission.

“Or he’s just cold.” Erick hesitantly took Silas’ hand and placed it back down, trying to ignore everyone’s continued staring. Ronan and Merise’s sappy looks were particularly annoying. Gale pointedly pretended not to notice. Doris whispered something to Iara about having a baby too, making her blush. Jeb and Monty heard and both chuckled. Erick curled in his cerulean tail more tightly beneath himself and muttered, “It was warmer back in the shoal.”

“Well, he’ll be warm enough as soon as we get back to Ivan’s house.” Silas let Erick guide his hand over his stomach, hoping they could get another kick. “He’ll be able to light up all of his big fireplaces for us, right?”

“Yeah, probably,” Erick answered before they noticed a fist-sized stone drift down from the surface. “Huh?”

Silas turned his head and saw Gale catch it. Getting up, Gale said, “Ivan must be here.” He swam up to go check and returned after a minute. Gesturing for Silas and Erick to get up, he said, “They want us out first. The rest of you will need to wait a bit.”

“Yay!” Silas leapt up and held out his hand to help Erick get to the surface.

Erick took Silas’ hand and pushed himself up with his tail. Even though Erick could still swim with his large baby bump, it was easier for him to let Silas pull him along. As they rose and went farther from the heating rock, Erick shivered and put a hand over his waist. He was not looking forward to pulling his bulk over the frigid, sharp rocks of the tide pool to stand stark naked and once again have to carry the weight of his growing stomach bug. Despite all of the drawbacks of being back in Peleran, the buoyancy of being underwater had been a definite plus.

When the three of them surfaced, Gale swam ahead to meet Dunley in the tide pool. Dunley helped Gale stand and threw a towel over his shoulders as Gale shifted to his legs. As soon as he was steady on his feet, he hurried over to the narrow path up the cliff to meet Ivan at the top.

Dunley went to pick up two more towels from the basket he had left on the path, above the waves, and returned to the midway point of the tide pool. “Well, let’s go,” Silas said.

Erick frowned at the low clearance of the waves over the rocks. The tide was lower than he was hoping it’d be. With a sigh, he squeezed Silas’ hand and said, “It’s going to be colder outside the water.”

Silas smiled sympathetically. “It will, but we can’t stay out here.” He gave Erick a kiss on the cheek and added in a whisper, “I’ll help you warm up as soon as we get back to your bedroom, okay?”

Erick blushed, but glanced back at Silas. “Is that a promise?”

“Of course.” Silas pet Erick’s chest and kissed him again on the lips. “Now, let’s get you and our little bug out of this cold water.” Silas pulled Erick to the tide pool.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This little story was meant to be all fluff, but Erick *had* to get all self-conscious with his body issues and turn it into something more weighty. I suppose it's more interesting this way anyway.

Erick and Silas swam into the tide pool with an incoming wave. As it receded, Erick quickly turned around so he wouldn’t land on his stomach. Dunley helped Silas stand and braced him as another wave came in. It pushed Erick farther towards the cliff wall, making him wince as he scrapped the back of his tail against the rocks. Silas and Dunley then helped pull Erick upright. The cold air stung his gills and made him feel more breathless than he usually did when coming out of the sea as he unsteadily got onto his legs. His stomach and the waves pushing and pulling at his shins made him feel off-balance.

Dunley put a towel over Erick’s shoulders and said, “We got you, buddy. Just one step at a time.”

Teeth-chattering now, Erick said, “F-fucking hell, why did we think this was the best place to return to land?”

Dunley laughed. “You’re the one that didn’t want to us to bother with sending a ship to pick you up.”

“Well, yeah,” Erick retorted. “I can’t very well climb a ladder like this!” His waist obstructed his view of the ground as he watched where he put his feet on the snowy path. While they made their way up, Silas followed behind them. “We should’ve done this at the docks or something.”

“And subject more eyes to your naked bums?”

“Hurry up!” Silas said, rubbing his goose-prickled arms under his towel. “Less complaining and more walking.”

Ivan met them at the top with a large blanket. “You don’t need to rush that much,” he said, wrapping the blanket around Erick. “We wouldn’t want either of you to slip and fall.”

“I know, but it’s still freezing out here!” Silas hurried around to slip under the blanket with Erick. He wrapped his arm around Erick’s waist and used his other hand to pull one side of the blanket tighter around the two of them. Erick pulled in the other side and rubbed Silas’ arm.

Gale waved at them, already dressed as they walked to the fire. He was wearing a burgundy knit hat and scarf that were the same color as his tailfin. “It’s plenty warm over here,” he called, putting his hands back over the fire.

Ivan gestured to the truck. “Your clothes are in the baskets back there. Gale, when you’re ready, there’s another pair of waders for you to help us get everyone else up.”

“What?” Gale protested. “Why me?”

“Because you know how to walk,” Ivan answered, “and the others are still getting the hang of it. I’m also going to have Silas help us.”

“Aw, really?” Silas said, pouting as he and Erick stopped in front of the fire.

Ivan rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Yes.”

Silas hugged Erick tighter. “But I have to help Erick stay warm.”

Erick flushed and Ivan smiled. “The fire can do that just fine for you.” Looking at Gale, he said, “Will you help us?”

Gale scowled and glared at the fire. Then with a groan, he said, “Fine.” He climbed back into the truck. “This is what I get for humoring Silas.” Coming back out, he sat on the edge of the truck to pull on the waders. “Could’ve avoided this if I just stayed home, but no, I had to join everybody for this Christmas thing.”

Erick smirked. “You make a good Scourge impression,” he said, readjusting the blanket to grab his towel from his shoulders and dry his short brown hair. Silas ducked out of the blanket to climb into the truck behind Gale.

“A what?” Gale stepped down and put the waders’ suspenders over his shoulders.

“A grumpy old character in a Christmas story.” Erick pulled his blanket around to better cover his modesty and sat against the back of the truck. With a grunt, he hopped up to scoot onto it. His stomach bug didn’t like the sudden motion and hit Erick’s kidney in protest. Erick bit back a curse and continued, “Ivan has the book in his library if you want to read it.”

“You think I’d want to practice reading in English during a holiday?”

Erick tipped his head to the side, conceding, “Fair enough. It’s still a good story, though, if you change your mind.”

“Yeah, probably not,” Gale said, walking to go join Dunley in the tide pool.

Silas held out a pair of pants from under the cover of the truck, having already put on his own. “Here. Why don’t you come in here to get dressed?” The snow falling had already covered both the top of Ivan’s car and Dunley’s truck in a fine white powder.

“Okay.” After some awkward repositioning to get up onto his knees and climb into the truck without squishing his waist too much, Erick sat back down on the wooden bench and took his pants from Silas. He pulled them on one leg at a time, but when he got them up to his waist, he huffed and struggled to make it zip. He tried to stand, hunched over, to hitch it up higher and pull the sides together, but it was clear that he was lucky to have gotten them over his hips at all. “God dammit. Silas, I think you gave me somebody else’s pants. They don’t fit.”

“They don’t?” Silas looked up as he took off his wet sealskin shirt. “But Ivan labeled them.” He dropped his sealskin into the corner and picked back up his towel to squeeze out his golden blond hair.

“What?” Erick looked into the baskets, and sure enough, each set of clothes had been neatly tied together with twine and tagged. Groaning, Erick sat back down on the bench. “Fuck.”

Silas giggled. “You must’ve grown a lot while we were in the ocean.”

“It was barely a month!” Erick said, throwing out his hands.

“Yeah, but babies grow fast. It won’t be long before our little bug will be a big bug.”

Erick face-palmed. “It’s already big, and it’s gonna make me look even fatter.”

“Then it’ll just give me more to love.” Silas hugged Erick around his waist and pecked his belly button with a kiss.

Erick made a surprised sound and batted away Silas’ face. “Hey!” He folded his arms over his stomach and narrowed his eyes at Silas, peeved. “That tickles.”

Silas grinned. “I know.” He passed Erick his shirt. “You better finish getting dressed now.”

Erick glowered at his shirt without taking it. “What’s the point? It’s not going to fit either.”

“It’ll at least be warmer than your wet sealskins.” Silas put Erick’s shirt down on the bench beside him as well as the rest of his clothes and began pulling on his own socks and shoes.

“I’ll still look ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous and warmer.” Silas picked back up the blanket from the floor of the truck and passed it over to Erick. “You should at least put this back on if you’re not going to get dressed.”

“Fine.” Erick snatched back the blanket and pulled it back over his shoulders. Mentally cursing Ivan for not bringing him bigger clothes, Erick grudgingly took off his sealskins and pulled on his shirt. It didn’t quite button all the way down. The sight made Silas laugh again, making Erick shoot him a glare that was more show than actual antagonism. Erick thankfully found didn’t have to leave his stomach exposed, however, because Ivan had also packed him a sweater that managed to stretch around his waist. It didn’t completely cover underneath the swell of his stomach, but it was better than nothing. He used a bit of the twine that had tied his clothes together to fashion a makeshift button extender. After he pulled on his boots, Erick wrapped himself back up in the blanket.

It took them roughly an hour to get everyone out of the water, dried, dressed, and warmed back up between the fire and the heating stone. Erick got out of the back of Dunley’s truck to move to the back of Ivan’s and sit with Silas. Silas’ father, Ronan joined them in Ivan’s passenger seat. In the back of Dunley’s car, Doris and Iara helped Monty and Jeb climb in and get seated on the benches. Though their tattoos gave all of them legs, Jeb had a missing foot because he had lost half of his tailfin to a shark. Finally, Gale and his mother, Merise sat in the truck’s cab with Dunley.

Dunley leaned out of his window and shouted over to Ivan, “Are you all ready to go?”

Ivan gave him a thumbs up. “Yes, let’s get lunch!”


End file.
